Tag: writing

Being in college is hard and frustrating. Daily assignments, a part-time job at the dining hall and classmates who can’t seem to pull their own weight in group projects are just a few of many problems that most of us face. But combine all of these with having to write weekly articles can make us struggle to comprehend what we ate for lunch, much less how we feel.

However, rest assured because these cat pictures are here to help you express your true feelings during these trying times.

Trying to figure out a good angle for your article is always the hardest part. But this time, you planned ahead by talking with your editors and doing some background research prior to starting, so you should be fine, right? Wrong. Suddenly, your sources aren’t replying, the Pew Research survey you wanted to use is irrelevant and you’re up at 3 a.m. screaming at your empty inbox because no one wants to reply.

You begin interviewing random people on the street out of desperation. These interviews are more miss than hit, but by chance, you meet someone who seems genuinely interested in the subject! You eagerly begin to record your conversation, listening to every word they say and asking the right questions. Maybe everything will be alright, you think to yourself as you thank the stranger and run home to your laptop.

Armed with your caffeine of choice, you seat yourself in front of your laptop and begin reading your notes and transcripts of your interviews. The clock ticks as you stare at a blank screen. You type something down only to furiously smash the backspace key because it didn’t seem right. This step will repeat itself for the next few hours until you suddenly realize you have less than three hours till your meeting with your editors. By then, inspiration finally strikes and you find yourself able to type clearly with a goal in sight.

At this point you start crying. You’re 20 inches over the maximum inch count and you know deep down that your editor is going to tell you to cut out a lot of graphs. It’s difficult to decide which graph is less important than the others, especially when you have spent a long time researching this topic. The deed has to be done though and you do it, shedding silent tears over the loss of your babies.

It’s done. Your glasses sit on your face messily and you blink anxiously at your editors while they proofread your article. While peering over your editor’s shoulder, several AP style errors seem to appear out of nowhere. You consider crying because you’re sure you reread this article at least three times before submitting it for editing and those errors must have came crawling out of AP style hell just to spite you.

But at the end of the day, all the anxiety of finding sources and crying over the article seemed to be worth it. You produce a pretty cool clip that gets compliments from your peers and you’re proud to add to your collection. Lying in your bed, you tuck yourself under the blankets, comforted by the thought that you’ve already started the research for your next story… But did you?